Why do we say "Don't beat about the bush"?

Background:

Also: Don’t beat around the bush. The idiom means to get to the point; stop dilly-dallying and say what you mean.

This phrase was originally literal, and referred to a medieval English hunting practice. When wealthy individuals would go shooting for game birds (pheasants, quail, grouse) they’d hire someone to physically beat the bushes with a stick, flushing the birds from cover (a technique still sometimes employed today).

Very early on, the phrase referring to the practice was used figuratively and took on a negative connotation. Some sportsmen considered this a lazy way to hunt – the person didn’t need to chase or even locate their prey. Someone else did all the work, they just pointed the gun and shot. Others took issue with the way the servants performed this task, beating about the bush rather than wading into a thicket, thereby doing the task unproductively (although this was safer, as sometimes the bushes hid dangerous animals like wild boar). In either case, the saying’s initial meaning was doing things inefficiently or lazily.

Its first appearance in print comes to us from the poem, Generydes – A Romance in Seven-line Stanzas (1440), making beating about the bush one of the oldest known non-Biblical idioms in the English language. The anonymous author writes:

Butt as it hath be sayde full long agoo,
Some bete the bussh and some the byrdes take.

The phrase’s meaning was starting to change by the 16th century, becoming associated with time-wasting endeavors. By that time, too, the word “about” had been added to the idiom. In 1531, Sir Thomas Elyot wrote a text called The Boke named The Governour. Dedicated to King Henry VIII, it was designed to instruct boys on how to become virtuous and effective leaders. There the author states:

Imitacyon of autours without preceptes & rules is but a longe betynge about the busshe & losse of tyme to a yonge beginner.

(“Imitation of authors without precepts and rules is but a long beating about the bush and loss of time to a young beginner.”)

Poet George Gascoigne also notes a slightly different take (also figurative). In his 1572 book, Works he writes:

He bet about the bush, whyles other caught the birds.

From the context, it's clear the author means one person is doing all the work while another reaps the benefits.

The idiom’s meaning continued to evolve over the ensuing years. Today, it continues to have a time-wasting slant, but it’s become specific to conversation. When we tell someone, “Don’t beat about the bush,” we’re asking that they stop dithering and get to the point already.

Interestingly, the phrase is still changing; in America, around is substituted for about. This version of the saying is gradually becoming the more common one, according to Phrases.org.uk.

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